Finest Hour is a first-person shooter developed for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. It was released on 16 November 2004. It was the first console installment of Call of Duty, developed by Spark Unlimited and published by Activision. It was followed up by a sequel, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, in 2005. It is the first console game in the Call of Duty series.

Although it is based on the original Call of Duty franchise for the PC, it has a completely different storyline and acts as a side-story/expansion of the main game. In the spirit of previous Call of Duty games, it features six intertwined stories and battles based on real events from the perspective of soldiers on each side of the allied campaign (U.S., British, and Soviet).

The game's music was composed by Michael Giacchino who previously worked on the original Call of Duty and the Medal of Honor franchise. AC/DC singer Brian Johnson provides the voice of Sergeant Starkey, one of the British commandos.

Multiplayer

Finest Hour has no online multi-player support for the GameCube, as it does not take advantage of the broadband adapter. However, on the Xbox, Finest Hour is Xbox Live compatible and through system links, has support for up to 32 players. This game has online support for PlayStation 2 for up to 16 players per session.

CharactersPrivate Aleksandr Sokolov is the first playable protagonist and one of the three playable Russian characters in the game.Lieutenant Tanya Pavelovna is a Russian sniper. She is encountered by Sokolov, who takes on the role of the second player character on the Russian front.Lieutenant (later Major) Nikolai Badanov is a Russian tank commander who encounters Sokolov and Pavelovna. With their help he secures a T34 tank. Badanov becomes the player's character for the remainder of the Russian campaign.Edward Carlyle is a British commando serving in North Africa. He is in charge of Demolitions and is the playable character for the entirety of the African campaign.Sergeant (later Lieutenant) Chuck Walker is a member of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division and a veteran of D-Day. His squad is tasked with clearing the German resistance from Aachen and finally from the last bridge over the Rhine at Remagen.Sergeant Sam Rivers is a U.S. tank commander. Rivers is the playable character for a single mission only in which his tank backs up American forces during the German Assault on Bastogne. He is later seen again in the mission at Remagen but not as a playable character.